This research project, supported by ANID Fondecyt Iniciación N°11150918 (2015-2018), investigated the complex sociotechnical dynamics of telemedicine implementation in Chile. While telemedicine is becoming increasingly integral to health systems worldwide, with a broad consensus on its potential for efficient and equitable care delivery, the global landscape reveals unexpected social effects and growing debates surrounding these technologies. In Chile, where telemedicine services span both expanding private and public health sectors, this imported innovation continually reveals society through its ongoing development.
Appropriating Thomas P. Hughes's framework, this research explored how telemedicine was simultaneously socially constructed and shaped Chilean society. The investigation pursued three interconnected objectives: first, to describe how the development, implementation, and routine operation of telemedicine affected the enactment of identities, bodies, and ailments across diverse dimensions of collective life—from everyday work with technological artifacts to social roles in health teams, organizational structures, and patient self-care practices. Second, analyzing how scientific, evaluative, and normative controversies surrounding distant medical practice influenced the trajectories of telemedicine programs in Chile. Third, exploring how controversy resolution and closure invisibilized the sociotechnical networks and collective processes that had shaped telemedical technologies, promoting their diffusion.
The research employed comparative case study methodology, examining one site where technology was being developed locally at a private Santiago health institution, and another where imported technologies were being implemented across hospitals and Family Health Centers forming a network throughout the diverse Biobío region. The methodology combined ethnographic observations, document analysis, interviews with actors across telemedicine networks, and examination of sociotechnical controversies.
This study enhanced the understanding of social processes involved in designing, implementing, and operating medical technologies in Chile, highlighting factors that influence telemedicine program development, particularly sociotechnical controversies as spaces where forms of collective existence are debated. The research gave voice to actors often rendered invisible in debates about technological change, contributing to broader discussions about the social dimensions of healthcare innovation and technology adoption in Latin American contexts.
Project Title: Telemedicine, Controversy, and Social Change in Chile: How Telemedicine is Socially Constructed and Shapes Society
Principal Investigator: Fernando A. Valenzuela (UNAB)
Field Researchers: Nairbis Sibrian y Catalina Silva
Funding Source: FONDECYT Iniciación N°11150918 (2015-2018)
Appropriating Thomas P. Hughes's framework, this research explored how telemedicine was simultaneously socially constructed and shaped Chilean society. The investigation pursued three interconnected objectives: first, to describe how the development, implementation, and routine operation of telemedicine affected the enactment of identities, bodies, and ailments across diverse dimensions of collective life—from everyday work with technological artifacts to social roles in health teams, organizational structures, and patient self-care practices. Second, analyzing how scientific, evaluative, and normative controversies surrounding distant medical practice influenced the trajectories of telemedicine programs in Chile. Third, exploring how controversy resolution and closure invisibilized the sociotechnical networks and collective processes that had shaped telemedical technologies, promoting their diffusion.
The research employed comparative case study methodology, examining one site where technology was being developed locally at a private Santiago health institution, and another where imported technologies were being implemented across hospitals and Family Health Centers forming a network throughout the diverse Biobío region. The methodology combined ethnographic observations, document analysis, interviews with actors across telemedicine networks, and examination of sociotechnical controversies.
This study enhanced the understanding of social processes involved in designing, implementing, and operating medical technologies in Chile, highlighting factors that influence telemedicine program development, particularly sociotechnical controversies as spaces where forms of collective existence are debated. The research gave voice to actors often rendered invisible in debates about technological change, contributing to broader discussions about the social dimensions of healthcare innovation and technology adoption in Latin American contexts.
Project Title: Telemedicine, Controversy, and Social Change in Chile: How Telemedicine is Socially Constructed and Shapes Society
Principal Investigator: Fernando A. Valenzuela (UNAB)
Field Researchers: Nairbis Sibrian y Catalina Silva
Funding Source: FONDECYT Iniciación N°11150918 (2015-2018)